


Remembrance

by Kaoupa



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: "Sequel" to something someone else wrote and stopped writing, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-08-22 05:28:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 1,530
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16591703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoupa/pseuds/Kaoupa
Summary: AU “Sequel” to the story Nepenthe. As the shock fades for everyone who has learned Rose Quartz’s secret, the Gems all separate to deal with what they have learned their own way.These ways aren’t always healthy, but they’re better than they used to be.





	1. Screaming

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dragon Elexus (CompletelyDifferent)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CompletelyDifferent/gifts), [Swordaperson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swordaperson/gifts).



_Mom was Pink Diamond._

For most of her life, Jasper had never believed that was possible for words to do damage to her. She was the Ultimate Quartz. One of the greatest warriors the gem species had ever produced, and possibly the most powerful Jasper there had ever been.

And with a single sentence, Steven - the son of Rose Quartz, the son of _her Diamond, Her Diamond_ \- had proved her wrong.

Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond.

And everything that she had believed in for more than five thousand years had been based on a lie.

She hadn’t believed him at first, until he had shapeshifted - something that she had been told he rarely did because of how it had gone wrong the first time.

And she - and every other one of the gems - had seen his gem turn over to reveal what it truly looked like.

That had been when she left the house, and stormed down the beach, away from the settlement, and away from the Temple.

She needed to get away. To think, to cry -

To _scream_.

 


	2. Fluctuations

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Steven has had to deal with a lot of things changing over the years. And like most people, he takes comfort in the fact that some things do not.

Steven did not always like it too much when things changed. He wasn’t sure why that was - maybe it was his half-gem nature at work, since it was hardly a secret that the gems had never really been able to handle things changing all that well.

Maybe it was his human nature, too. Humans were relatively better than gems at adjusting to changes, but that didn’t mean they were always fond of it or good at it.

Of course, it could just be because when he was twelve to fourteen, things changed in traumatic or sad ways far too often, and it had left an aversion to change brought on by that.

Or all of them. It was hard to tell.

But he was handling this one better than most of the gems were, at least.

Connie, Amethyst, and Peridot were doing just fine, but everyone else...

“You feeling any better?” 

Steven strummed his guitar for a few seconds, before he looked at his father and smiled. “I think I am.”

But it was always a relief to him that some things just stayed the same.

  
  



	3. Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rubies are practicing their saluting. Most of them, at least.

“Eyeball”, as her Diamond called her, and  Ruby-1F4 Cut-4ND to her crewmates,  was annoyed, to say the least. 

Even if it was in a new body and as a new person, Pink Diamond had returned! And she… he? Yes,  _ he _ could hardly have been any more understanding of her never giving him the respect he had deserved before then.

But she and the rest of her squad had to make up for lost time, and there was currently a problem with that.

“Why aren’t you saluting, soldier?!” Eyeball’s glare was no less powerful despite her only having one eye to glare at her fellow Ruby with.

Leggy only quivered a little with the eyes of her squadmates on her - all of whom had their arms crossed in the Diamond salute they hadn’t practiced recently. But she quickly started to focus again.

“I - I just don’t know. I mean - it’s not Pink Diamond, um, it’s Steven you want to salute, right?” Leggy shrugged a little as she spoke. The other Rubies looked somewhat thoughtful with this explanation.

Except for Eyeball. “‘Not Pink Diamond?!’ Maybe they aren’t the... same person, yes! But he is a Diamond regardless! He has her gemstone, and she chose him as her successor by giving it to him, and all gems on this planet, regardless of their loyalty to Homeworld, know that he deserves our respect in every way! IS THAT CLEAR, SOLDIER?!”

“I, I know that it’s what Homeworld wants!” Leggy nodded.

As Eyeball nodded calmly, walking to inspect the rest of her troop, Leggy couldn’t help but think of something else.

_ Is… is it what Steven would want? _

  
  



	4. Discoveries

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pearl talks to someone who hasn't really been able to do all that much to help them.

“Why didn’t you tell them?”

Spinel had honestly been expecting that question for a while. Ever since she had heard from Steven about their investigation into Pink Diamond’s death.

She just gave Pearl a somewhat bitter smile. “They’d probably never believe it if they heard it from me, or they’d take it wrong.”

“And this is better?” Pearl looked amazed.

“They bonded, didn’t they? Over what they found as they found more things out about them - well, her.” Spinel replied, waving her glove-covered hands dismissively.

“I… suppose.” Pearl replied. She could have told them in a heartbeat, if she’d been able to get her hand away from her mouth - but even now, Pink Diamond’s last order had bound her until she had shown Steven the truth.

“They’re talking about it with each other?” Spinel asked.

“Not exactly.” Pearl replied, remembering abruptly who she was talking to - and what she had done.

And after saying that, she left.

  
  



	5. Rebuilding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bismuth is pretty understanding. And also pretty much in need of time to think.

When she needed time to herself, Bismuth almost always went to her forge and made things.

Weapons had been her main workpieces during the war, and also during the time after she had been freed. 

As the years went by afterwards, and the fighting grew more distant in her mind, she had started branching out into other things, though. She had still come up with weapons for all of the Rubies after she learned none of them (except Eyeball) could summon gem weapons.

But also “walking braces” for Peridot after she had seen that weird (but funny) human animation. Or the punching bricks for Army after Steven had talked her out of taking her anger out on the barn or nearby trees and animals.

Now whenever an idea for a weapon crossed her mind, the image of “Pink Diamond” being impaled by “Rose Quartz”, and the aftermath of that, followed shortly after.

“Yeah - ‘hey Rose! Look at this! I’m gonna shatter _you_ with it!’” she said to herself in a mock tone.

She laughed a little to herself after that, before sighing. 

Well, she would figure something out eventually - and she needed to melt down a few of the broken weapons she’d recovered anyways.

Maybe if she made a “current” Diamond Authority symbol, she could pass it off as a new punching brick.

  
  



	6. Icy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Smashing things has been Jasper's way of dealing with emotions for a long time. And she has run into a problem she can't just smash.

“You doing okay now?”

Jasper sighed, shook her head, then took out another one of the green slips that Steven had told her were a sort of agreed-upon transaction method for humans in this… country? Whatever the humans had as an equivalent of the court system, except with far more infighting and personal sorrow - but at the same time, a great deal more personal advancement and reflection.

“Another three milkshakes, then?” The ice cream shop employee said, mentally wondering how this… orange woman with a stone for a nose… could have drank twelve in the last four hours and still be here. Jasper just nodded.

Well, at least she wasn’t bad company, and tipped somewhat well. But someone who was doing this poorly, well… “What’s going wrong with your life, miss?”

Jasper looked at her with a look of pure deadpan. Then, she started talking.

“I recently discovered that someone I trusted had been betraying me and almost all of our mutual friends, that my relationship with most of those mutual friends was based on a lie, that my girlfriend and I were only together because she messed with our heads and that we originally hated each other, that one of those friends is the son and heir of the woman I swore my life to who I thought was murdered by that woman’s alter ego, and I have spent the last three days wrecking boulders of ice in the place you call Antarctica and screaming at the universe and that woman, who is currently deceased because of giving birth to her son.”

“...You want two more on the house? It could help.” The waitress said, before she sat down. “And miss… I can’t really relate to all that… But trust me, you should go back and see them eventually. If they really are your friends, they’ll probably still want you around - I mean, when they’re all done getting their frustrations and stuff out like you are, probably.”

“...Thank you.” Jasper just nodded. 

  
  



	7. Wonders

If anyone human had gone to the Marinas Trench that day, and looked in just the right spot with a powered light, they would have seen something that was supposed to be impossible.

A bubble. Filled with air. At the bottom of the ocean, with nothing visibly supporting it or keeping it there.

And a woman inside it, with a skin color that should not have been possible for someone who was clearly alive without a lot of body paint.

  
  
  


There was so much life here. Even down here.

Lapis had never really been to a planet like Earth before. Even without the Rebellion, there was a massive lack of worlds with organic life that the Empire had found before Earth. Maybe a dozen that she had heard about.

Until she came here, there had never really been any life when she had arrived on the worlds she had helped the Diamond Authority terraform.

She extended her hand a little. Ten feet away, a small current disturbed a rock.

She had never really thought about it too much before.

  
  



End file.
